Congratulations to Michael Moore on the early indications of success of Fahrenheit 911. The film has created gratifying buzz not only among the expected progressive audience, but has even generated a debunking web site according to an Alternet story, Framing Michael Moore.

...To fight back, some unknown person or organization hired the PR firm Russo, Marsh & Rogers of Sacramento, California. The company, which has strong ties to the Republican Party set up a Web site, Move America Forward , to attack Fahrenheit 9/11. The PR flacks who managed the site encouraged:

Americans who found in Moore's movie Fahrenheit 9/11 an attempt to undermine the war on terror, to let movie theater operators know about their objections. Think about it; If you walked into a Wal-Mart store and saw they were selling merchandise that attacked the military, our troops and America's battle against Islamic terrorism, wouldn't you complain to the store manager or write a letter and ask that they not sell that product because it was undermining our national effort?

Others on the right aim to counter Moore with a movie of their own making, Michael Moore Hates America: A Documentary That Tells the Truth about a Great Nation.

That will be a hard sell to anyone who sees Fahrenheit 9/11, which makes clear that Michael Moore loves America. It's the Bush administration he can't stand.

He's got a lot of company.

On the Move America Forward's web site front page, they declare "We are winning the war on terrorism" [emphasis theirs] earning them the nomination for the crackpot comment of the century.

Crackpot kudos also to Ray Bradbury for making a stink about the title and demanding an apology. One hopes this isn't some kind of cover for political objections. I can't wrap my mind around Bradbury as a conservative, but stranger things have happened.

Citizens United, a group run by Bill Clinton critic David Bossie, has filed a complaint before the Federal Election Commission charging that ads for the film constitute political advertising and thus may not be aired in the months before an election or party convention. The FEC has not yet ruled on the matter.

Reviews, though hardly unanimous, are overwhelmingly positive. Box office sales have been brisk, even in this summer blockbuster season. It appears that Fahrenheit 911 has reached critical mass at this point and is not about to be supressed by crackpot censorship at the hands of Republicans who are finally responding to the reality that the Bush re-election campaign is in deep jeopardy over the most disastrous foreign policies ever to damage the stature of our nation. I don't think conservative money is going to pull this one out of the mire.

Congratulations, again, Michael Moore.

I understand why when you're a member of the court, you can't lip off like this, but personally, I think he deserves a medal.

Judge Regrets Comparing Bush to Hitler

By Gail Appleson

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals judge on Thursday apologized for comparing the way President Bush took office after the disputed 2000 election to the rise of dictators such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

Guido Calabresi, a judge on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, sent a letter to his chief judge expressing "my profound regret" for the comments made at a legal conference in Washington on Saturday.

Calabresi's remarks at an American Constitution Society Conference were reported by the New York Sun on Monday.

(Bush) came to power as a result of the illegitimate acts of a legitimate institution that had the right to put somebody in power. That is what the Supreme Court did in Bush versus Gore. It put somebody in power.

The reason I emphasize that is because that is exactly what happened when Mussolini was put in by the king of Italy.

Calabresi was also quoted as saying:

The king of Italy had the right to put Mussolini in, though he had not won an election, and make him prime minister. That is what happened when Hindenburg put Hitler in.
Calabresi told the lawyers that he was not suggesting for a moment that Bush is Hitler. I want to be clear on that, but it is a situation which is extremely unusual.

On Thursday, Calabresi apologized.

My remarks were extemporaneous and, in hindsight, reasonably could be -- and indeed have been -- understood to do something which I did not intend, that is, take a partisan position,

Calabresi, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, said in a letter given to reporters.

Calabresi's letter was addressed to John Walker Jr., chief judge of the circuit and a cousin to former President George H.W. Bush. [imagine that! ed.]

Reporters were also given a memo Walker sent to other circuit judges informing them of the apology and urging them to be careful about comments that could be construed as political during an election year.

In his letter, Calabresi said he believed judges should not publicly support political candidates and he had intended his comments as academic argument. [which indeed they are, say I ed.]

Calabresi said he was "truly sorry" and that he was apologizing "profusely" for the episode.

where we both saw our sons, my husband Joseph's newly-married namesake with his lovely bride, Michelle and we attended my son's traditional but quirky wedding. Marin and Anna were married at Morrocco's dance studio decked out with diaphanous banners hung from the high ceiling, under a chupah made from Anna's recently departed mother's shawl. The ceremony was beautiful, Anna so lovely in her Erte-like white satin gown and Marin so proud and suave. Friends he's had from second grade to to college showed up, as well as some their parents who were like long lost family to me. Smiling relatives, a wonderful klezmer band (who could also kick booty on 'Honkey Tonk Women') played and the cake was my favorite: carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, done up in three tier glory. Suffice it to say tears (of joy) flowed freely from this new mother-in-law, wearing a delicately formal embroidered chi-pao.

The flight was, as always brutal and long. I love China, but it's so far away. I hear we missed a heat wave in Beijing, no sorrow there.

We did the tony restaurants in Gramercy Park, Katz's Deli in the Lower East Side and everything in between, variously savoring steaks, scotches and bagels. New York was mostly chilly, overcast and rain-ish except for the wedding day, which was a perfect clear sunny day in May, one which is engraved in my heart forever.

from China Daily

Police siren scares chickens to death

A farmer received compensation from local police recently for the death of 35 chickens frightened by the noise of a police wagon's siren in Huxian County, Shaanxi Province, while another 400 who died later were not covered by the compensation, reports Prosecution Daily.

Police were repairing a wagon and sounded a siren only 10 metres away from Tian's chicken farm lat at night last December. Some 35 chickens raised by Tian were killed immediately, being trampled by other chickens in a panic and approximately 400 died later.

Tian asked for 3,600 Yuan (US $433) in compensation but police paid him only 315 Yuan (US $38) for the death of the 35 chickens. They said there was no evidence proving that the later deaths of other chickens were caused by the horn.